


THE COLD DAY

by Larryhasmyheart



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Canon Related, Flashbacks, Hiatus, Hope, M/M, complicated love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:40:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13604766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larryhasmyheart/pseuds/Larryhasmyheart
Summary: The hiatus certainly hadn't gone as Louis had initially expected it would.  But wow, he was making an album, and all of them were doing amazing things.Then one day he gets an anonymous text that inadvertently brings him down memory lane.





	THE COLD DAY

**Author's Note:**

> Dear readers,
> 
> Thank you to the creators of this challenge for giving me the opportunity and inspiration to write again. Though this is more or less a canon piece, and it references actual events, the story is, of course, a work of fiction. Written with love for Louis, and a little different slant on how some things might have been. My thanks to gettingaphdinlarry for helping me with the flashbacks!

Why would an anonymous person send him this text?

Did they think they would win points with him, or…?

After all, he had made it clear that bygones were bygones, water under the bridge, he wished everyone the best, etc. He was busy with his own life and making his own album. 

Louis reached for his neglected cigarette, flicked the long ash off the end, and raised it to his lips to finish it. Slowly blowing smoke, he read the message on his phone once again:

“Well, I guess Harry doesn’t ALWAYS win, eh?”

He assumed, of course, this referred to the recent news of no Grammy nominations. He shut his phone off without responding.

Just someone trying to stir up trouble. He shouldn’t give it another thought, but…

His first instinctive response was an echo of the past. “Stop wit’ your t’ings, man, at my boy.”

Then an odd mixture of sadness and validation coursed through him. 

“Little shit, serves him right.” The thought flashed through his brain, but he didn’t really mean it…not for a minute. 

In another time and place, Harry would have been here with him and they would be making jokes, getting each other to smile, turning disappointment into a party…but that was another time and place.

How had things gone so wrong? 

 

“I’m travelling with the Jeff and the Azoffs.”  
“What’s going on, Harry?”

 

Dammit, he was doing it again.

He leaned back on the leather couch with a new Marlboro, and allowed himself the rare indulgence of marinating in happier times. Memories came unbidden and flooded his consciousness as a melancholy mist of sentiment settled over him.

He and Harry had connected immediately on the X Factor, and by the time they were put together in One Direction they had already became fast friends. It was all new and exciting, and all five of them had bonded over the thrill of being offered a contract by Simon and the label after being voted off the show. 

They were the luckiest sons-of-bitches in the world.

He tipped his head back and blinked away moisture as he stared at the ceiling. 

His mind shifted through that first year and then came to a halt the day he and Harry had done their twitter-cam. 

They had spent that whole day together, and he had never enjoyed being with someone more, not even Hannah. Apparently, that had carried through during their twit-cam session. 

Fans had finally reacted during the music he had played. 

 

“Why are you doing that mushy stuff?”

Louis read the tweet silently, and figured Harry was reading it too. 

“Um…” Harry began, then trailed off. 

Annoyance tickled the back of Louis’ neck. He swung his bangs aside and sharply answered out loud. 

“Because we want to have FUN that’s why we are doing this.” 

Busing himself looking down at his phone, he felt heat on his face, until Harry spoke up. 

“Um…I keep seeing tweets from…an Olivia Strong! You must be…obsessed!” He turned to Louis and continued with a giggle, succeeding in turning the conversation. “She’s all over the place!”

Louis felt the heat lift and grinned back, adding his own sass.

“Olivia Strong needs to calm the FOOK down!” 

 

The shift to lightness had expressed itself as they had continued jamming to the music, their antics a cathartic rebellion of ‘we have fun, deal with it.’

Louis felt his eye sting, for more than one reason, but Harry had definitely had his back. At the time, this had escaped him, but in retrospect it was a moment that had repeated itself many times over the early years…he and Harry supporting one another. 

He snuffed out his smoke, got up and shuffled to the kitchen, the cool ceramic tile meeting his bare feet. This walk down memory lane was going to need a little alcohol. He retrieved a bottle of beer from the fridge and popped the top off, letting the door close on its own. Tipping it back he took a long swallow as he sauntered back to the living area, then paused at his music station, licking his lips.

What the hell, why not?

Shuffling through his play lists, as he had done that day long ago, he came to the two he was looking for…Bruno Mars and Katie Perry. He was going to wallow just this once…just one more time. 

As the first notes of “Teenage Dream” drifted through the speakers, a warm spot in his chest swelled as he relived the remainder of their cam…they had brushed off the few rude tweets, including one that demanded them to “stop mushing,” carrying on like they were nothing, and the feelings that had welled up in him then threatened to engulf him now. 

He set the bottle down and lit another smoke. He knew what was coming next, but he had to push through it. The acute flood of tenderness transformed to pain as he recalled how their evening of naïve enjoyment of the music and each other’s presence had come to a close.

A faint knocking had sounded.

 

“Hey, that would be Niall on the approach,” Louis sing-songed. 

He hopped off the bed turned cheerfully, “Someone’s at the door!” 

He opened it to actually find Liam standing there, hands in his pockets, brown tufts of hair poking out from under a snapback.

“Heyyy! You ugly sod!!”

“I saw you guys on twitter…” Liam answered quickly. 

Behind him, Louis heard Harry turn off the computer.

“Yessss, me and Harry did a twit cam!”

He pulled Liam into the room, but sensed an uncharacteristic hesitation.

“So, what’s up?” Louis asked, sensing something off, trying to keep it light.

“Nothing, really. Simon just wanted me to, um, I don’t know, check on you.”

He shrugged in embarrassment when Louis made a face at him.

“Check on us?”

Harry stayed quiet, and looked on with searching green eyes, something playing in the corners.

“Yes,” Liam continued, turning his cap around to face forward, obviously uncomfortable. “Guys, he was watching the twit cam and twitter responses and stuff."

Louis exchanged glances with Harry and saw the brief flicker of confusion as he held his gaze. He then snorted at Liam and brushed his fringe aside. 

“So? What about it?”

“You know how Simon is…he…” 

He stopped and looked around over at the computer and music equipment. Louis turned to face Liam directly, blue eyes steady on his.

“He WHAT?”

“He got a bit annoyed, I guess,” Liam answered him straight, eyes apologetic. “He called me and told me, and I quote, ‘go over and see to Lou and Harry, will you, and kindly remind them that twit cams are for FAN engagement,’ so here I am.”

“Serious?” Louis’s face scrunched up in disbelief. “What were we doing, then?”

Liam shrugged again, averting his eyes, then glanced from one to the other. 

“He said if you had any questions, he would be more than happy to talk to you.”

“Hmm,” was all Harry said, but his eyes spoke volumes.

Oh bloody hell!” Louis spoke with disdain. “Harry, don’t worry about it.”

 

But Harry had worried about it. 

The first of many discussions with Simon followed, and at first seemed pretty innocuous. But as time went on, the reality of what they were facing hit them…especially after their interview in Paris. They had had a great time, and thought they had done well…until they were made to watch the play back by their PR team; that was just so fucked up and ugly.

“Ok, fine,” Harry had spat out bitterly. “We just won’t do any more interviews together, will that make you guys happy?” 

They took him up on his sarcastic offer. 

There was the whole 1D Day when it became obvious he and Harry would not be doing an hour together. He should have seen that coming, especially with Harry’s new obsession with the Azoff family…which confused him quite frankly…but it had come as a shock. 

He should have expected it, but it still stung. 

Ok, screw this. He got up and switched his music to his Spotify playlist and grabbed another beer before continuing his unpleasant reverie.

By the time 2014 rolled around, he and Harry’s relationship had grown very strained…Harry’s personal stylist, his own hotel room, his personal jet…and when he heard rumors that Harry had suggested a hiatus...He didn’t know what he would have done without Zayn that year.

Things came to a head in November. Considering everything, he’d been shocked and confused at Harry’s infamous “don’t knock it” type responses in interviews. 

Well then…after hearing the news that Apple CEO Tim Cook had come out as gay, he’d been determined to make his own statement. So many emotions tumbled as he had stood holding his Apple tee, finally placing a call to one of their paparazzi.

“Yeah, this is me request,” he’d told him, “be there, I want HQ pics.”

He knew there would be payback, but even he hadn’t predicted the severity of the fallout.

Harry had actually tried to talk to him after the social media mess, but... 

 

“So, you don’t mind gay rumors, you just can’t be associated with me!” Louis painfully quipped. 

“Ok, Mr. this is ‘the biggest load of bullshit’ Tomlinson!” Harry retorted with equal venom.

“You’re throwing THAT back at me? That is so unfair!”

“Ditto!”

They glared at each other a moment, then Harry packed up his jacket, breathing heavily, speaking in a low voice.

“Everything has been a mess, don’t take it so personally, this is just business! Trust me!”

“Sure, no doubt straight from Jeff HAZoff’s mouth!” Louis shot back.

Harry answered, eyes spitting, “Is that how it’s going to be? Fine.”

He marched through the door and turned to speak once more before slamming it.

“It’ll be a COLD DAY you know where before I come knocking on your door again” 

Louis fumed at the sound of departing footsteps, nostrils flaring.

“So…we can’t be associated, Harry? We’ll see about that.”

Later that day Louis found himself in the chair of the tattoo house smiling a Cheshire-cat smile, reassuring the artist that yes, indeed, he wanted the dagger. He pointed to the spot on his outstretched arm.  
“Right here.”

 

He had dearly paid for everything, of course…paid for it big time.

Thank God for MITAM. The months writing with Liam had been both rewarding and challenging, despite the blow of losing Zayn…despite being commissioned to write a song with Harry.

“If you think I am going to write anything with you that even SUGGESTS sappy, you are quite wrong.”  
“Fine by me!”

That hadn’t stopped him from needing an outlet. He approached Liam one day.

 

“Li, I want us to write a song.”

“Tommo, of course you do!’

“I mean, I want to write a very special song. We can get Jamie to help us.”

 

When it had come time for initial demos, and “Home” was shared, there was a moment of awe in the room. Bursting with pride for himself, Liam, and Jamie, he avoided Harry’s stare while others congratulated them. Though when “If I Could Fly” was presented, Louis’s eyes found Harry’s for several moments. 

He hadn’t been surprised when “Home” wasn’t chosen for MITAM.

 

“Liam,” Louis began that night, “We are going to release “Home.”

“How are we going to do that? You heard them…”

“We are going to find a way.”

 

Oh that had been a sweet victory.

The OTRA tour had been so bitter sweet…for many reasons. Liam had helped him keep his sanity, and there were moments it seemed he and Harry had put aside their differences…moments like old times that carried over to MITAM promo. After all, they were going to be taking a “break” and who knew when they would tour again?

A break. This thought turned his heart cloudy again, as visions of OTRA Harry flashed by.

Sighing heavily, he reminded himself how well they were all doing making their own music. It was one of those “out of the ashes come the roses of success” things, though he couldn’t completely understand what Harry and the Azoffs were doing. They wanted to make him a big “break-out” star obviously, but…even Harry had to know cutting off his fan base was a mistake. 

“Well, that is Harry’s business,” he stated out loud emphatically as he carried his empty bottles to the kitchen, then tried to quell his rising emotions by mimicking a well-known meme.

“But…that’s none of my BUSSSSIness!” 

He sang it carelessly as he flung the clinking bottles in the trash, then stood quietly for a moment, hands on his hips, his emotions still betraying him. The only sound was the music from his speakers and his pulse in his ears.

“Shit!” He laughed sardonically and rolled his eyes. “Shit, shit, shit!”

A knock on the door interrupted the following silence. The condo he rented had an immaculate security system, so how…?

First the text, now this.

He shook off the willies, then approached the door, stopping just short of it.

“Who is it?” He called, leaning his hand on the door to look through the peep hole, but not before the visitor answered.

“It’s just me.” 

Louis froze as he recognized the voice and before he could think, flung the door open, standing silently, mouth agape.

Harry stood there, jeans and white tee, hand raised against the door jam. Vulnerable green eyes glistened on him and he gave a little shrug.

“Harry?” Louis finally found his voice. “What are you doing here?”

Harry absently picked at the brass hardware in the lock. 

“Maybe I…I was just…in the neighborhood…” 

Then turned to him with a small smile to soften his next words.

“Don’t worry, I was very discreet.”

Louis merely blinked back at him, and Harry added,

“I’m just lucky you haven’t blacklisted me to your security.”

Louis came to himself, backed up a step, and crossed his arms to stop shaking.

“Well, it’s not really cold in ‘ere today, but I ‘ave been in a bit of a hell.”

Grins tugged at both their mouths, and moisture wet their eyes.

Then Harry took a hesitant step forward.

“Louis, I…nothing has gone the way I had imagined.” He looked on him with a mixture of longing and regret. “And it has NOTHING to do with the Grammy thing.”

Louis lowered his arms, unashamed of his emotion, his suspicion about the anonymous text left unspoken, his vision of kicking Harry out on his bum fading away like a broken hologram. Then he swallowed and gestured towards his couch.

“Ok Harry,” he breathed, “you wanna come in?”

Smiling through tears, he nodded his head like a kid and Louis closed the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and to those who left kudos!


End file.
